Originally Posted by
uswest33
I don't have any comments on this situation one way or the other. Bart's comment is interesting, however. I have been a LEO for nearly 15 years now. The area I patrol frequently is near a major airport. In my experience the absolute WORST violators of this apparent policy are people involved in federal law enforcement and the TSA. Whenever I stop them for speeding or driving recklessly (which is at least once a week) they are the FIRST to make certain I know who they are and who they work for.
I firmly believe in treating everyone the same, no matter who they are. I give no special treatment to anyone. I don't violate the laws I am sworn to uphold nor should they. They ALWAYS whine or look at me funny when I come back with a ticket for them as if they can't believe THEY are being held accountable for their actions.
I stopped a TSA'er on his way to work about a year or two ago. This guy claimed to be a supervisor (three-striper I assume?). He was driving recklessly. He IMMEDIATELY told me he was a TSA screener on his way to work. When I advised him that I would be issuing him a ticket he objected stating that he "was just like me" and he "shouldn't get a ticket." This was a big mistake. As a screener he, in no way, does anything that resembles what I do as a professional law enforcement officer, nor does a TSA screener even have the power of arrest.
At this point I posed a hypothetical question to him. I asked him if I was transiting through his checkpoint and I set off the metal detector, would he stop me and do his job or could I just flip him my badge, wink at him and he'd let me go with no further screening due to the "professional courtesy" he was demanding. He naturally stated that he would stop me and further screen me. I then asked him why he thought he could violate my laws and get away with it because he was a screener. He hemmed and hawed for a while but still gave me a hard time. At that point I thought about FlyerTalk and asked him "would you like to drive today?"
He left still angry but holding a citation that he richly deserved.
Interesting story.
As I've pointed out before, the problem at TSA boils down to leadership. That supervisor should have known better than to demand professional courtesies, especially when he must have known how he was driving. At any rate, incidents like the one you described result in a one-way conversation with the FSD himself on the proper way for TSOs, particularly supervisors, to conduct themselves. I guess it's a matter of FSD leadership. I know mine wouldn't tolerate it.
And courtesies are just that: a courtesy that an LEO may or may not grant. Several years ago I was taking my family to the coast for the weekend; took a back road I knew that would get me there and bypass the heavily trafficked major highways. Apparently everyone else in the state knew about this back road and soon enough I was in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Well, saw an opening and decided to race around the line just to show everyone else how fast I
would have been driving had they stuck to the major roads just like I expected them to. Then I saw the reason for why they were driving so slowly: a state trooper on the side of the road. He pointed his radar gun at me and directed me to the side. I had to drive down to the next available intersection and then circle back to where the trooper was. I knew I screwed up; I knew I was driving too fast; I knew there was absolutely no excuse for the way I drove. And my wife was seated next to me, fixing me with "the glare."
The first thing the police officer saw was the skull and wings of my license plate with the paratrooper motto of "Death from Above" on it. Turned out that he served in the 82nd Airborne Division and was deployed to Grenada during URGENT FURY. We talked at length about Fort Bragg, parachuting and the 82nd. Finally, he said that I really needed to slow down because it was going to be a busy weekend; I thanked him and apologized for speeding; and he let me go: but my wife kept glaring at me.
A courtesy is something we should appreciate when we receive it. It is never something we should expect or demand.